April 6, 2010
Myrtle
Esther

EARS TO HEAR is the radio ministry of FAMILIES. BY GOD. For EARS TO HEAR, here’s Tim Glisson.

Myrtle was a beautiful girl, full of faith, love and life. Yet her life was anything but easy.

At a tender age her parents died leaving her an orphan. Lonely but not alone, Myrtle was adopted by an older cousin who raised her to love the Lord and His commandments.

Upon reaching maturity Myrtle was ceremoniously kidnapped by the kings court and forced into service. Scared but secure she drew upon the teachings of her adoptive father to help her keep her wits.

As crisis after crisis hit, it was Myrtle who handled each with a confidence that belied her age earning the King’s pleasure until he made her the new queen.

And when her people were facing war and extinction, it was Queen Myrtle, now Esther, who would risk her own security and life to save them.

Esther, a beautiful young queen who was taught by her adoptive father to obey him and obey God: two lessons she used to perfection in saving her people. Imagine how history would be changed had Mordecai not practiced these lessons himself in saying Yes Lord when God asked him to adopt?

Is God calling you to change the life of a child, so He can change the world?

If you have EARS TO HEAR His call please visit our website at FAMILIESBYGOD.org. For EARS TO HEAR, I’m Tim Glisson.

April 5, 2010
The Apostle of Adoption
Romans 8

EARS TO HEAR is the radio ministry of FAMILIES.BY GOD. For EARS TO HEAR, here’s Tim Glisson.

When the apostle Paul wrote about the spirit of Adoption he wasn’t just repeating words he had previously heard, but rather ideas he had lived out in practice.

Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8 that when we receive the Holy Spirit of God because of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God, we too become children of God. And as God’s adopted children we are joint heirs to His Kingdom; as we suffer with Christ, so too will we be glorified with Christ.

In other words, joint heirs come out of joint sharers…of pain…in the forms of persecution, isolation, trials and tribulation. That’s the way adoption is: in the spiritual sense, and in the physical realm.

Adoption is always made necessary through a separation from a natural relation. Whether parents die, simply abandon children or lose them to neglect; the result is the same, children left alone. And unless someone hears their cry, feels their pain, or knows their need, children are left alone.

Just as Jesus reached down to earth’s orphanage and saved us; we need to reach into the world’s shelters and systems to save them. Trouble is the minute there are troubles, most of us quit.

Adoption is hard; you pay a large price to do it. But that’s exactly what Jesus did for us, so that we might have the means to do it for others, including the least of His children.

If you have EARS to HEAR the cry of the child, please visit our website at FAMILIESBYGOD.org. For EARS TO HEAR, I’m Tim Glisson.

April 2, 2010
Easter Sunday
John 3:16

EARS TO HEAR is the radio ministry of FAMILIES.BY GOD. For EARS TO HEAR, here’s Tim Glisson.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever shall believe in Him shall not die, but have everlasting life.

The familiar John 3:16 stands out this time of year as it is the Easter message; but it’s also the adoption message as we aren’t born as children of God, rather we are born again as children of God.

Paul tells us in Romans 8:15 that we are adopted into God’s family through the spirit of adoption in which we cry out “Abba, father” a most intimate term often reserved for a young child seeking her daddy. And how are we to come to Christ? As a little child naturally; with a childlike faith and hope.

Christ’s work on the cross opens the door for us to be adopted into God’s family. It is the epitome of the Easter message. Is it any wonder James says that true religion and undefiled before God and the Father is to care for the orphan, the fatherless, those who need to be…adopted?

On behalf of all of us at FAMILIES. BY GOD. we’d like to wish you and yours a very Happy and Sacred Easter Sunday.

If you have EARS to HEAR God’s heart for His children, please visit our website at FAMILIESBYGOD.org or call 315-687-5322. For EARS TO HEAR, I’m Tim Glisson.

April 1, 2010
The Face of Race
Ephesians 2-14

EARS TO HEAR is the radio ministry of FAMILIES. BY GOD. For EARS TO HEAR, here’s Tim Glisson.
Race is a huge issue in the Child Welfare System causing bitterness and resentment.
In most big cities you can walk into family court and find plenty of white faces among the judges and the lawyers – but almost none among the families being judged.
Black Americans make up only 12 percent of the U. S. population, but close to 40 percent of our Child Welfare System.

And despite thousands of black children needing to be adopted, very few black advocates favor transracial adoption – or, parents who adopt from a different race.

It would be easy to suggest that with all the kids needing homes in our country that these issues should take a backseat to the more important issues of safety and permanency.

But the two sides are not exclusive. When God instructs us to care for the fatherless He’s telling us not only to visit and adopt them, but to inspect their lives and the issues that affect them as well.

The issue of race within Child Welfare needs our inspection. As Christians we know we are a body and disparity in a body should not be so. The apostle Paul informs us in Ephesians 2 that “Christ has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, through the cross”.

Race is a barrier, Christ has destroyed it, it’s written in His word so you know it’s true: it’s up to us to act like it.

If you have EARS TO HEAR the cry of the child please visit our website at FAMILIESBYGOD.org. For EARS TO HEAR, I’m Tim Glisson.

March 31, 2010
George Whitefield
Galatians 2:10

EARS TO HEAR is the radio ministry of FAMILIES. BY GOD. For EARS TO HEAR, here’s Tim Glisson.

George Whitefield died a pauper.
Although credited alongside the Wesley’s John and Charles with founding the Methodist movement and touted as the most popular preacher of the Great Awakening in America, Whitefield lived a hard life.
Threats to his life were common; beatings rarer but still regular; his was such an uncommon style churches refused to open their doors to him. So he preached in the open air: to thousands at a time.
It’s been said that when Whitefield preached about Calvary, his audience saw the blood. When he spoke of Christ crucified, his listener’s felt the nails.
So how did so popular a man, so full of the favor of God, end up so poor at life’s end?
By remembering Paul’s testimony to the Galatians in which he wrote about his fellow apostles, “All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do”.
While preaching Christ to millions, Whitefield committed his personal funds and raised thousands more for the care of orphan children in Savannah Georgia. In hearing God’s heart for the fatherless – George Whitefield became a pauper on earth to store up his treasures in heaven.

If you have EARS to HEAR the cry of the child, please visit our website at FAMILIESBYGOD.org. For EARS TO HEAR, I’m Tim Glisson.